TVSquad

I'll admit I was first "miffled" by most ambiguous ending ever in the history of series endings. But I'm beginning to come around to the the side that sees The Sopranos finale as "brilliant" rather than "lame." David Chase left us wanting more, and that's pretty awesome. Besides, according to Ken Levine, it could have been a lot worse.

On his blog, Ken, a veteran sitcom writer, hilariously reminds us just how annoying The Sopranos finale would have been on network television. For starters, a countdown clock would have run across the bottom of our television screens for at least a month leading up to the finale. The two-hour finale would have been preceded by a one-hour clip show hosted by Bob Costas. Janice would have gotten her own spin-off called Widow With Children.

(S06E16) First off, I've gotta say that this was the weakest episode in this short half-season so far, in my opinion. A lot of commenters on this site were a little ticked off at the fact that Tony was now well in debt as far as his gambling problem went, even if he did have cash elsewhere, and how that just cropped up out of nowhere. While I wouldn't say it was out of nowhere, the heaviness of his losses piling up were definitely a big surprise.

On top of that, there were a few random bits of dialogue that didn't seem to go anywhere, kind of like how Bobby didn't really have much to say one way or another about the horse race. Some part of me wants to say that the boys are just becoming glorified yes-men to Tony, but I'm not sure that it's, and I think I might be trying too hard to get to that point. Out of everything that did happen this week, though, what might be most important - and maybe a huge plot point - was Tony's spotting of the guy that used to hang out at the Bada Bing, in front of what looked like a Muslim gathering place. Of course, Chase & Co. will catch hell from some group for that particular portrayal, but if you're going to take a page out of anyone's playbook, it might as well be 24's.

After the shocker that closed off last week's episode, it's not too out of line that we're treated to a famous Sopranos dream sequence this week. I got a big kick out of the show description on my TV's program guide, saying that Tony experiences "mistaken identity while on a business trip." Surely, this "means" something overall, but it wasn't even that simple. I'm truly beginning to feel like every little thing that happens, every nuance, means something to the overall plot. The previews for next week show what will presumably be the beginning of some troubles for the Family, and we're getting teased with more about that every week.

Looking into the title, "Join the Club," might lead down the direction of people who end up working as rats for the feds. And with Christopher having the Feebs in his face about terrorists being funded in this country by drug dealers, etc., we got a little taste of foreshadowing when he bumps into the two Middle Eastern men in the Bing. He already knows what got his girl offed, so it'd be a really big deal if he started talking to the agents. As for the real family, I thought seeing Carm the way she looked was almost as intense as seeing the open wound on Tony's stomach. She's in a rough place right now, and somehow holding it all together with her slacker son making a confusing attempt at making things good with his dad.

HBO realizes that it's been a really, really long time since we've seen any new episodes of The Sopranos, so it has enlisted the assistance of Google Maps to help you remember. On The Sopranos website, the Google Map shows different locations in New Jersey where key plot points happened last season. Move your mouse over a red dot and a box will appear with a video clip, summary, and a link to an entire episode guide. A lot of the video clips are just conversations between Tony and other major characters like Tony B. (Steve Buschemi), Christopher (Michael Imperioli), and Sack (Vince Curatola) and really aren't all that exciting. They're used as a reminder of who got whacked and where the tensions lie between crime bosses. And, of course, it includes the scene where Adriana gets whacked.

Speaking of getting whacked, here's a way to kill time. It's The Sopranos' version of Whack-a-Mole.